When I rebuilt my Tohatsu 2.5 (seized up due to dead water pump; ignorant me) the bottom end was oily. The bearings consist of ball and needle bearings. I'd say that you'd have to run one a long time to hurt the bottom end (a friend of mine ran a 2-stroke inboard most of one season on straight gas before realizing it was a 2-stroke after it finally seized up. It smokes a lot now, but still runs). The lean burn issue is less clear. On a 2-stroke, there's not much to burn, and the parts in question have a lot of relative mass, thus could absorb a lot of heat in the short term. On a 4-stroke, the exhaust valve would be in danger, but the motor should be a lot cooler than a full throttle situation, and again, we're talking about a no load, short term situation. I frequently run 2-stroke equipment dry. No ill effects so far. Come to think of it, the lowly lawn mower can expect to be run dry while in working mode, again and again. Hey, wait a minute, so can outboards! How many of us have forgotten to open the gas vent? (Me.) All that said, if your motor melts into an expensive blob, not my fault! I hereby limit my liability to $0.02 ;^) Steve Tyree grease monkey and shade tree mechanic In a message dated 3/22/2005 12:38:53 PM Central Standard Time, Wilsometer@aol.com writes: Norm, I am guessing your Evinrude 3hp is a 2-stroke engine. There are two schools of thought on running engines dry. In the 'old days' this practice was common--especially on engines that did not have bowl drains on the carb. The thinking was that it was the lesser of evils to get any remaining fuel out prior to storage (2-stroke mix can go bad starting two to three weeks after initial combining of fuel). Some manufacturers even advocated this practice in the owner's manual. The contrary school insists that running the carb dry can cause two potential problems. The first argument is that the engine can, for a brief moment, have inadequate lubrication (assuming two-stroke), as the fuel-oil mix itself is what is doing the lubrication. At first glance, this would seem odd, as you would not think the motor would run any longer than it had fuel/oil mix available. Apparently, as the argument goes, the engine can run on after the oil portion has been exhausted, and when only residual gas vapor is present. If this is true, then there might be a brief time when the rings and bearings are poorly lubricated, and cylinder scuff and/or bearing wear could result. The second argument (and this would be true for both 2 and 4-stroke engines) is that running dry necessarily results in an extreme lean-burn scenario--albeit for a brief time. Lean burn in and of itself would not be a problem save for the fact that it dramatically raises combustion chamber temperatures. The concern is that this can be damaging to valves, valve guides/seals (4-strokes only, obviously), as well as spark plug electrodes/insulators. While I come from a long tradition of run-dry proponents, and have never suffered any engine damage from doing same, I have come around to the opinion that if there is a bowl drain available (and virtually all newer engines have this), I will use that method instead. Scott